Children’s Hospital Gets $7M Gift To Fight Obesity

REEDLEY, CA - OCTOBER 21: Seventeen year-old Marissa Hamilton stands on a scale during her weekly weigh-in at the Wellspring Academy October 21, 2009 in Reedley, California. Struggling with her weight, seventeen year-old Marissa Hamilton enrolled at the Wellspring Academy, a special school that helps teens and college level students lose weight along with academic courses. When Marissa first started her semester at Wellspring she weighed in at 340 pounds and has since dropped over 40 pounds of weight in the first two months of the program. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of children in the US ages 6-19 years are overweight or obese, three times the amount since 1980. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

BOSTON (AP) — Children’s Hospital in Boston has received a $7 million gift from the New Balance athletic shoe company to fight childhood obesity.

The money will help create a center at the hospital to support outpatient programs and community outreach programs designed to prevent obesity among children.

Experts say as many as 45 percent of public school children in Boston may be overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, or cancer when they become adults.

Officials say the New Balance Foundation Center at the hospital will promote among other things healthier eating habits for children and help provide access for children from low-income families access gyms and fitness equipment.

I understand the concerns of Obesity in the United States, what I don’t understand is why you always have talk about it! I don’t see you talking about the dangers of people who are anorexic. That is just as dangerous to people as is obesity!